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A Lesson in Linguistics
The University of Pennsylvania Department of Linguistics is the oldest linguistics department in the United States. Founded in 1947, the primary focus and study of the department of linguistics is as follows. "Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, from the sounds and gestures of speech up to the organization of words, sentences, and meaning. Linguistics is also concerned with the relationship between language and cognition, society, and history." Now I'm sure you're asking yourself, what does this have to do with me? Language is a global unifier in terms of communication and the free exchange of knowledge and ideas. While spoken language is biologically the first exposure that a human being has to language overall, it is not the only method of the conveyance of language. Writing is the second and most prolific form of language due to its very nature to withstand time in an unchanged state. Unfortunately, what it has in longevity, it lacks in emotion. This is not to say that writing can't evoke an emotional response. However it's nature is static and without two very important facets of spoken language: tone and voice. Tone and voice in spoken language help to convey the attitude, intent and mood of the speaker to the listener. It helps the listener to know if the speaker is angry, happy, joking, serious, sad or any other range of emotional states. The same can be applied to written language, but it requires much more input on the part of the writer than the reader. The writer has to impart much more into describing their mood, attitude and point of view. Care must be taken to tell the reader how you are feeling as the writer. Now the reader doesn't just get to be let off the hook so to speak. Just as in spoken language, the mood of the reader can influence how they take the writer's message. For example, subject A wrote a short note to subject B that says this: Pull the meat out the fridge. Now, there is nothing characterizing A's tone. It's just a static phrase. However, there are a couple of ways that B could take it. If B is in a overall good mood, B may not think anything of the request and complete it post haste. Let's say that B is in a bad mood instead. The phrasing of the note is completely devoid of emotion but B could project their mood onto A by taking the note as an order rather than a request. Then B is upset with A over something that A didn't necessarily do. That is when it is important for the writer to convey their feelings and mood to the reader. That way no matter what the message is, it is sure to be received in a manner that is most likely to be processed as the writer intends. Now while all of this is a lot to process, there are other inherent things that need to be understood when your aim is to effectively reach your audience. Who is your audience? Where do they live? What is their culture like? Specifically here, there are people in no less than 8 countries on this website. We all speak English, but not the same English. It is not the first language for everyone. It has different vocabulary and rules depending on the country. With all this in mind, now you must really be asking yourself, what does this have to do with me? Simply put, it means that everyone needs to take as much time thinking about their audience and their tone and voice when they are writing out of character as they put into their in character posts. Everyone needs to read their posts with an objective mind and ask themselves the following questions: *Have I been clear? Is there a possibly for misunderstanding? *Have I properly conveyed my message? *Is it appropriate? Have I thought about my audience and their cultural norms in my message? If you have not considered these items, then you are not ready to hit the submit button until you do. Resources: Case Western Reserve University http://blog.case.edu/webdev/2007/10/11/tone.html Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics University of Pennsylvania, Department of Linguistics http://www.ling.upenn.edu/ Category:UFRP Player Handbook